Airplane



Nov. 24, 1925. 1,562,549

C. W, HALL I AIRPLANE Fi e n- 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 67mm Af 2b /fuz4 l/WEA/TOR arm.

ATTORNEY C. W. HALL Nov.24,1925' AIRPLANE Filed Jan. 5, B24 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Chum (M W A TTOR/VE V Patented Nov. 24, 1925.

UNITED STATES CHARLES WARD HALL, OF LARCHMONT, NEWYORK.

AIRPLANE.

Application filed January 3, 1924. Serial No. 684,108.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES \VARD HALL, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Larchmont, in the county of VVestchester and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Airplanes, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to airplanes, and, specifically, to the means required for arresting the forward motion of an airplane when alighting upon shipboard or other restricted area.

Ships designed for the purpose are provided with a flat open deck upon which the airplanes may alight, but in order that this operation may be accomplished successfully it is necessary to provide means for arresting the motion of the machines within the limits of the necessarily restricted space thereby afforded.

The approved practice at present is to mount above the landing deck spaced series of cables-a longitudinal series which are tightly stretched in horizontal position at a height of about eighteen inches and, substantially midway between such longitudinals and the deck, a few, for instance three, transverse cables which are yieldingly held in horizontal position by passing their weighted ends over pulleys at the sidesand to equip the airplanes with a number of small anchors or double-pointed grappling hooks which hang from the spacer- .bar of the forward landing gear inposition, when the wheels are running upon the deck, to engage the longitudinal cables and so hold the airplane down to the deck and with a single long-shanked hook which at its forward end is mounted by universal joint (to allow for a possible side drift) on a bottom stanchion of the machine some seven or eight feet from its stern post and which is brought back and held up against the bottom of the airplane when not re quired but when about to alight is released and swings down, between two of the longitudinals, to catch one or another of the yielding transverse cables and so arrest the forward movement of the machine.

Experience has shown that this equipment, while otherwise generally satisfactory, has one serious defect in that the momentum of the machine, when its forward movement is arrested by the operative engagement of the hook with one of the transverse cables, tends to throw the tail up, often causing damage to-the propeller and/or nose parts of the machine and, on the rebound, to the tail skid.

The objectof my present invention is to obviate this very objectionable feature; and this I accomplish, broadly stated, by raising the point of attachment of the arresting hook'from the bottom of the machine to a point sufficiently above the bottom that when the hook is operatively engaged its line .of pull will be at. an upward angle which a will carry it close to, and I better slightly above, the center of gravity of the machine-, preferably by so mounting the hook that the point of its attachment will normally be maintained substantially at the level of the bottom of the machine but will be shifted automatically upwards by a drag on the hook, and at the same time modifying the framework and covering (if any) of the bottom of the machine to accommodate the hook in its new location.

The invention will be understood by reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a perspective view, largely diagrammatic, of the body framework of an airplaneequipped with what I now regard as the best embodiment of my new arrestmg gear, as the machine appears after it has alighted on shipboard and the forward grappling hooks have engaged one or more of the longitudinal cables, and the arresting hook has caught up a transverse cable; Fig.

2 is an enlarged broken detail showing, partly in side elevation and partly insection, the arresting gear and certain adjacent parts of the framework of the airplane; Fig. 8 is a perspective view of some of the parts shown in Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a perspective of a portion of the body framework of an airplane and the arresting gear mounted thereon, showing, as one of various mechanically equivalent arrangements, a simple form of link connection for the attachment of the arresting ho-' "1d Fig. 5 is an enlarged broken detail, partly in side elevation and partly in section, of such modification.

Referring first to Figs. 1-3 of the drawings, A. indicates the body of an airplane, B the small grappling hooks carried on its forward running gear, C the arresting hook,

and D and E the longitudinal and transverse cables, respectively, which are mounted above the landing deck of a ship.

As here shown, the arresting hook C, of the usual or of any suitable construction, carries attached to the end of its shank a fittin 1 with lugs which straddle and are pivoted to a lug on one side of a collar 2,

which is mounted to slide and to turn upon framework of the machine.

the upwardly and rearwardl inclined tubular slide-bar 3, thus providing a shift-able universal joint connection between the hook and the slide-bar. This bar, the length of which will vary somewhat according to the size of the airplane, is held in position by the attachment of its ends to the body At its lower end it is secured to the center of a lower stanchion 4 by a fitting 5 which in turn is braced, forwardly, to the lower longrons by ties 6 6 and, upwardly, to the upper longronsby tie-struts 7 7. The fitting 8 on the upper end of the slide-bar is secured by ties 9 9 to fittings 10 10, which join the ends of a transverse stretcher-rod 11 to the two side stanchions 12 12 and are in turn braced forwardly to the upper longrons by ties 13 13, and is also directly braced to the same longrons by tie-struts 14 ll. The upper fitting of the'bar also carries suitably mounted therein a rubber plug 15 which serves as a bumper to limit the upward movement of the collar thereon. A rubber cord 16, the ends of which are'carried forward through suitable spreader-holes pro vided therefor in the fittings at the ends of the bottom stanchion f and then attached to the lower longrons, is passed over the collar 2, or otherwise suitably secured thereto. This cord, which is put in tension when the collar is raised on the slide-bar, tends to draw the collar back to, and to hold it at, the lower end of the bar. To ermit the upward shifting of the hook wien operatively engaged and also a sidewise drift of the tail of the machine, the diagonal and transverse bottom stanchions 18,- 19, 20, 21,

22, to the rear of the point of attachment of the hook, are suitably arched; and such arched rear portion of the bottom may be covered, if desired, with a sheet 23 of rul; her or other elastic material, which is suitably held in place as by lacing its forward end to the rubber cord 16 and its sides to the lower longrons. The outer free end of the hook is drawn up and releasably held against the bottom of the airplane near the tail by'the usual cord 24. .v

The operation of the arresting gear is ap-- parent. Normally, the collar, due to gravity and to the action of the rubber cord and elastic covering, rests on the fitting at the lower end of the slide-bar, and the hook, which is fastened up at its outer end, extends along the bottom of the body of the machine in the position shown by the dotted lines. \Vhen released for the purpose of etfecting a landin the hook, after swinging downwardly an picking u a transverse cable on the landing deck, raws the cable up and the tailof the machine down and, with the shifting of the collar to which-it is pivoted to the upper end of the slide-bar, assumes the angular position shown 'in the drawings, in which position its line of pull as indicated by the dashand-dot line 25 passes above the center of gravity of the machine with the result that the tail of the machine is held down. As soon as the machine is brought to rest and the drag on the hook is removed, the collar will again 'as sume its normal position at the lower end of the slide-bar.

In the modification illustrated in Figs. 4; and 5,,the fitting l on the shank of the hook is pivoted to a short link pivoted in turn, in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the first pivot, to a collar or fitting 2 which joins the converging ends of two diagonal link-bars 9 9. The outer ends of these link-bars are joined by suitable fittings to a transverse stretcher-rod 11 the ends of which are pivoted in fittings 10 which are secured to the two side stanchions 12 12 and are braced forwardly to the upper longrons by ties 13 13. A flexible wire cable 17, attached at its ends to the end fittings of the bottom stanchion 4 and midway its length to the collar 2*, parallels the rubber cord 16 when extended and limits the upward movement of the shank of the hook. In other respects, the" structural details are, or may be, the sameas those already described, and that the hook will operate in substantially the same way and with the same result as before is obvious.

It is to be understood that the invention is not liinitd to the forms of its embodiment hereinabove described since the same end may be attained by other equivalent means.

' What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. In an airplane, an arresting gear comprising a hook and a universal joint connection by which the shank of the hook is attached to the body framework of the airplane the length of the shank in front of the stern post said point of attachment located at a point above the bottom of the body when the hook is operatively engaged -whereby its line of pull will project for wardly and upwardly. close to the center of gravity of the machine.

2. In an-- airplane, an arresting gear comprising a hook and means for attaching the hook to the body of the airplane which provide a limited universal movement of the hook and by which the point of attachment is normally maintained substantially at the level of the bottom of the body but is automatically shifted upwards to a limited extent by the drag of the hook when operatively engaged.

3. In an airplane, an arresting gear comprising a hook, an inclined slide rod which is secured to the body framework of the airplane and extends from the bottom thereof upwardly and. rearwardly, a fitting which is mounted to slide and to turn upon the slide rod, and a pivoted connection between the shank of the hook and the fitting which permits the hook to swing upwardly and downwardly thereon.

4. In an airplane, an arresting hook, means for attaching the arresting hook to the body of the airplane several feet forward of the stern post and when the hook is operatively engaged at a point, above the bottom, which will project its line of pull upwardly to the center of gravity of the machine, and to the rear of the point of attachment of the hook said body framed with upwardly arched bottom stanchions.

5. In an airplane, the combination with an arresting hook of a universal joint connection which secures the'shank of the hook to the body of the airplane intermediate its sides and several feet forward of the stern post and which is shiftable from the bottom of the body upwardly to a limited extent and said body to the rear of such connection being framed with upwardly arched bottom stanchions.

(5. In an airplane, an arresting hook, means for attaching the hook to the body of the airplane, intermediate its sides and at a point the length of the hook forward of the tail, which provide a universahjoint con nection normally positioned substantially at the level of the bottom of the body but automatically shifting upwards to a limited extent when the hook is operatively engaged, and to the rear of the point of attachment of the hook said body construction including arched bottom stanchions and an elastic bottom covering.

7. In an airplane, an arresting gear comprising an arresting hook and a connection thereof to the body framework of themachine which permits the hook to swing fore 'and aft in a vertical plane below the machine and also allows it some lateral movement, said connection being located to the rear of the center of gravity of the machine and at a point which will cause the forwardly projecting line of pull of the hook at all times when operatively engaged to pass at an upward angle and not below said center of gravity.

8. In an airplane, an arresting gear comprising an arresting hook the shank of which is attached to the body framework of the machine, to swing in a fore and aft vertical plane below the machine, at a point which is located to the rear of its center of gravity and, when the hook is operatively engaged, is above the bottom of the machine, whereby the forwardly projected line of pull of the hook will pass at an upward angle close to said center of gravity.

CHARLES \VARD HALL. 

